Marine Invertebrate Evolution in the Galapagos Islands MATTHEW J.
JAMES 1. Perspective of This Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . 1 2. Directions for Future Research . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. Plan of This Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Charles Darwin brought the Galapagos Islands to the attention of
zoologists, botanists, and geologists following the six-week visit of H.
M. S. Beagle to the islands in 1835. Since then published research on
the biota of the islands, partic- ularly in multiauthored volumes, has
focused on terrestrial plants and animals. The present volume is
designed specifically to provide a summary of work on the marine
invertebrate fauna. One deviation from that objective was the inclusion
of a chapter on land snails, which proved to be a good choice because
the phylum Mollusca is now covered more thoroughly in this volume than
in any single previous scholarly work on the Galapagos. The academic
bottom line with this book is to elucidate the evolutionary responses of
shallow water, benthic marine invertebrates to the unique set of insular
conditions that exist in the Galapagos Islands. The route taken to that
objective has many paths including taxonomic revision, determining
biogeo- graphic affinities, and examining the ecological requirements of
species. The information presented here is for some groups from the
islands the first stage in a thorough process that can eventually lead
to an understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of these species.
